Global stocks climbed on Thursday over prospects of upcoming interest rate cuts and growing optimism around artificial intelligence. Even amid this optimism, investors are keeping a cautious lookout on U.S. President Donald Trump’s sustained push against international trade.
From threats of a punitive 50% tariff on Brazil’s exports to the U.S. to plans to impose a 50% tariff on copper imports, the latest tariff moves have seemingly had little impact on the market. Looking at the situation, Jeff Ng, SMBC’s head of Asia macroeconomic strategy, noted that investors have grown somewhat “numb” to the volatile situation.
“They know that there is still room for negotiation. A lot of these announcements, they start off with eye-catching numbers, but they are not totally final, and they are still subject to changes. Even if they are implemented, they could also be reversed in the coming few months to year.”
Investors have also received upbeat quarterly results from TSMC, backed by surging interest in AI, along with the news of Nvidia becoming the world’s first public company to briefly hit the $4 trillion mark in market capitalization.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q1 2025.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
12. CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 36
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, the company announced that it is the first cloud platform to make NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition instances generally available. Attaining up to 5.6x faster LLM inference and 3.5x faster text-to-video generation than the previous generation, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition is suitable for inference models up to 70B parameters.
The GPU architecture combines NVIDIA’s cutting-edge compute with CoreWeave’s purpose-built AI Cloud Platform, helping customers achieve a cost-efficient solution along with strong performance for building and scaling AI applications.
With the launch of the RTX PRO 6000, CoreWeave now offers the widest range of NVIDIA Blackwell infrastructure on the market that customers can choose based on their unique needs.
“CoreWeave is built to move at the speed of innovation, and with the new RTX PRO 6000-based instances, we’re once again first to bring advanced AI and graphics technology to the cloud. This is a major step forward for customers building the future of AI, as it gives them the ability to optimize and scale on GPU instances that are ideal for their applications, and a testament to the speed and reliability of our AI cloud platform.”
-Peter Salanki, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of CoreWeave.
CoreWeave, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWV) is a cloud platform provider that provides equipment for AI and other computing purposes.
11. Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 44
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, JPMorgan upgraded the stock to “Overweight” from Neutral with a $33 price target, hiked from $18. JPMorgan said that the energy company is a beneficiary of the Big Beautiful Bill.
“We are upgrading BE to Overweight from Neutral.”
The firm believes this qualification should lead to upside to consensus revenue and margin estimates beginning in FY 2026.
“We believe the tax credit should provide pricing power for BE in conversations with data centers, while also increasing demand from more price sensitive (non-data center) customers.”
It also added that factors such as rising gas turbine prices and long lead times may lead hesitant buyers to commit.
“As competing gas turbine pricing and lead times remain elevated, we believe the tax credits for fuel cells can push hesitant BE customers over the finish line and expect order activity to increase accordingly.”
-Strouse wrote, albeit some uncertainties.
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE:BE) develops solid-oxide fuel cell systems for on-site power generation, helping meet the growing energy demands of AI data centers.
10. International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 8, the company announced a new lineup of data center chips and servers. The IBM Power11 is the next generation of IBM® Power® servers redesigned with innovations to deliver speed, reliability, and flexibility that businesses need for seamless hybrid deployment on-premises or in the IBM Cloud.
The move marks IBM’s first major update to its “Power” line of chips since 2020. These Power systems are meant to deliver simplified, always-on operations with hybrid cloud flexibility so that businesses can maintain competitiveness in the AI race.
Offering 99.9999% of uptime, zero planned downtime for system maintenance, and less than one-minute guaranteed ransomware threat detection, the Power11 is a resilient solution that delivers unique value and offers greater business continuity.
The Power systems will be available from July 25 and will not require any planned downtime for software updates. Moreover, their unplanned downtime each year averages just over 30 seconds.
The company intends to integrate Power11 with Spyre, its AI chip, in the fourth quarter of this year.
“IBM Power11 changes the game for enterprise computing. With Power11, clients can accelerate into the AI era with innovations tailored to their most pressing business needs. We are taking advantage of the full IBM stack to deliver hybrid cloud, AI, and automation capabilities while building on our decades-long reputation as a trustworthy hybrid infrastructure for essential workloads.”
-Tom McPherson, GM, Power Systems at IBM.
International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) is a multinational technology company and a pioneer in artificial intelligence, offering AI consulting services and a suite of AI software products.
9. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 77
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, Palantir and weather intelligence and resilience platform Tomorrow.io announced a partnership to revolutionize weather intelligence. By integrating Tomorrow.io’s proprietary data and predictive insights into Palantir’s industry-leading platforms, the companies will be able to enable end-to-end automated weather decision-making across different sectors.
The agreement also involves the two companies engaging mutual partners and customers across the defense, government, and enterprise sectors. Tomorrow.io has launched the first commercial constellation designed for weather observations, training adaptive AI models on that proprietary data that learn from each new data cycle. By combining this with Palantir’s battle-tested decision engines, the company will be able to curate reliable real-time atmospheric data.
Tomorrow.io is also joining the Palantir FedStart program as part of the agreement, which is a SaaS offering that helps companies boost their federal go-to-market strategies. Companies can achieve compliance and scale operations within the government sector through the program.
“We built FedStart to accelerate the government’s ability to leverage the best, most innovative technologies as they emerge. By enabling the federal workforce to take advantage of Tomorrow.io while ensuring strict adherence to the compliance and security requirements for processing U.S. government (USG) data, we are excited to help increase productivity and efficacy across government.”
-Mike Gallagher, Head of Defense for Palantir Technologies.
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) is a leading provider of artificial intelligence systems.
8. AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 95
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 8, Scotiabank analyst Nathaniel Schindler initiated coverage on the stock with a “Sector Outperform” rating and a $430 price target. With AppLovin’s artificial intelligence tools expanding beyond gaming, the firm believes the mobile marketing specialist is pulling ahead in performance advertising.
It said that its proprietary AXON engine, which has been trained on more than $10 billion of historical ad spend, augments campaigns in real time and formulates a “vast moat to cross for new entrants.”
AppLovin has been allowing smaller brands into its network, potentially tapping a “second core revenue vertical” worth more than $1 billion.
The bank’s positive assessment reflects renewed confidence in terms of growth prospects for the company. According to them, AppLovin has “blown through the Rule of 40,” which is a key metric for software investors balancing revenue growth with profit margins. A company’s combined growth rate and profit margin should exceed 40% to pass the Rule of 40.
Even though shares look expensive when compared to sales, the firm said they are trading at an attractive multiple of future earnings. Three catalysts are also working in favor of AppLovin; namely, broader adoption of AXON across advertisers seeking conversion‑based campaigns, booming budget shifts from social‑media platforms toward AppLovin’s network, and sustained insulation from data‑privacy changes due to the company’s on‑device footprint.
Needless to say, there are also some risks. These include rising competition in demand‑side platforms as well as potential regulatory shifts.
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ:APP) provides a leading marketing platform powered by AI technology.
7. Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 104
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, RBC Capital analyst Tom Narayan raised the price target on the stock to $319.00 (from $307.00) while maintaining an “Outperform” rating. Despite mounting pressure, the firm believes that Tesla’s sell-off has gone too far.
“We believe there is strong demand for Tesla products even in the face of more EV competition. Tesla’s lead, profits, cash generation, and currency are a major advantage that helps it to fund growth.”
The firm said that despite negative sentiment toward US auto stocks, OEMs are facing tariff impacts in the second quarter. However, plans to deal with these costs will likely impact vehicle sales and car dealer inventories from the third quarter. This is largely because some buyers are purchasing early to avoid the expected 2025 tariffs.
“Q2 deliveries were inline with consensus but above buyside expectations. Deliveries across regions were resilient. The new affordable car coming in Q3 should help performance in Europe and China. Shares have sold off since the June 22 robotaxi launch in Austin. We expect positive commentary on this development on the Q2 call, which could be a catalyst for shares.”
It values Tesla’s core car business at 1x sales, giving premium weight to long-term plays such as Megapack energy storage systems, autonomous driving, and AI. Narayan also argued that the long-term picture for Tesla makes it worth holding the stock through this rough patch.
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an automotive and clean energy company that leverages advanced artificial intelligence in its autonomous driving technology and robotics initiatives.
6. Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 158
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur reiterated an “Overweight” rating on the stock with a $325.00 price target. The firm said that Broadcom is “firing on all cylinders” following a meeting with Broadcom management.
“Yesterday, we hosted an investor group meeting with Broadcom’s President and CEO, Hock Tan, CFO, Kirsten Spears, and VP of IR, Ji Yoo. The discussions centered around strong AI demand trends, which are driving strong growth in Broadcom’s custom AI XPU business and driving demand for its high performance networking portfolio.”
The firm highlighted its progress on product development, with its 2nm 3.5D AI XPU product tape-out on track for this year. Moreover, its first-generation AI XPU products for two leading prospect engagements, believed to be with Arm/Softbank and OpenAI, are also in the works. There are also some major dollar content capture opportunities in scale-up networking.
JPMorgan said that the company seems to be experiencing a gradual “U” shape recovery in its non-AI semiconductor business. This is reflected in current bookings and order inflection, expected to contribute to positive EPS revisions next year.
Meanwhile, its VMware business is also likely to sustain strong growth until late 2026/2027, possibly attaining $20 billion in annualized revenues. There are gross margin headwinds from the AI XPU business, but semiconductor operating margins are likely to sustain expansion.
Broadcom is a technology company uniquely positioned in the AI revolution owing to its custom chip offerings and networking assets.
5. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 159
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, Wedbush has reiterated its “Outperform” rating on the stock and maintained its price target at $270.00. The rating affirmation reflects continued confidence in Apple’s potential.
According to the firm, Apple should make the move to acquire Perplexity AI Inc. so that it can strengthen its artificial intelligence offerings. Analyst Dan Ives noted the potential acquisition to be a “no-brainer.”
Ives noted how major tech giants such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, and Oracle are engaged in an “arms race” to monetize AI. Ives said this race is notably “the biggest tech trend in the last 50 years.”
Even though Apple boasts “the biggest and most entrenched consumer installed base in the world with 2.4 billion iOS devices and 1.5 billion iPhones,” the tech giant is still falling behind in this race.
Apple’s internal efforts for developing Apple Intelligence have been nothing less than disappointing. There were no major announcements made at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) either, which massively disappointed investors and most importantly developers.”
“The time has come Apple needs to acquire Perplexity to significantly boost its AI platform.”
According to Ives, the acquisition could help “redefine Apple’s AI strategy and would fit in very well with Siri.”
Even though Apple may need to pay up around $30 billion for the acquisition, Ives believes this is only “a drop in the bucket relative to the monetization opportunity.”
Apple is a technology company known for its consumer electronics, particularly the iPhones and MacBooks.
4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 186
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, Bernstein SocGen Group analyst Mark Moerdler lowered its price target on the stock to $249.00 from $251.00, while maintaining an “Outperform” rating on the stock. The firm quoted rapid foreign exchange movements as a reason behind the price target adjustment.
According to the firm, currency headwinds may create significant pressure on the company’s margins and revenues. It now assumes an exchange rate of 32.5 New Taiwan dollars to 1 U.S. dollar in Q2 2025 and 29 for Q3 2025 and beyond.
These currency shifts are anticipated to drive 5% headwind versus Taiwan Semi’s guidance assumption in Q2 2025 and another 6% in Q3 2025. It also estimates foreign exchange pressure will impact Taiwan Semi’s revenue by approximately 5.5% in 2025 and another 4-4.5% in 2026 for the full year.
Nevertheless, the firm believes TSM’s fundamentals will improve despite currency challenges.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE:TSM) manufactures and sells advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications.
3. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 227
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge reiterated a “Buy” rating on the stock with a $195.00 price target. The rating affirmation comes ahead of the company’s second-quarter 2025 earnings report.
“GOOG 2Q25 Preview: Expect Solid Search & YouTube Growth Amid Resilient Consumer; Our 2Q Digital ad expert call on 7/2 implies GOOG Search strength has cont’d into summer, despite tariff uncertainty. Our 2Q net rev (+12.7% y/y) is +5.4% vs cons, while our Op Inc / EPS est’s are +5.5% / +4.6% vs cons, respectively. We’ll look for updates on GOOG GenAI efforts, incl recent AI Mode rollout, as GOOG combines trad’l search with chatbot search capabilities. Maintain Buy and $195 PT.”
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses.
2. Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 273
Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge maintained its “Buy” rating for the stock and raised its price target from $700.00 to $800.00.
The firm expects Meta to beat Q2 consensus estimates, forecasting quarterly revenue growth of 16% year-over-year, 2% above expectations. It believes this upside is driven by continued video monetization and engagement gains.
Moreover, the firm’s Q2 digital advertising expert check demonstrated accelerating spend growth across Meta properties.
“We forecast Q2 revenue growth of 16% (year over year), roughly 2% above consensus, driven by continued video monetization and engagement gains. We see Meta’s recent AI investment and hires as a response to mixed Llama 4 reception, as Meta increases AI capabilities to drive core advertising business and Business AI tools.”
-Blackledge
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also formed a Superintelligence unit led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.
“We believe that Meta’s AI investments will support i) Growth of the core advertising business through monetization & engagement optimization; ii) Development of Business AI tools, including interactive ads & biz messaging; and iii) Enterprise adoption of Llama models.”
1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 284
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is one of the 12 AI Stocks Making Waves on Wall Street. On July 9, Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to “Outperform” from Perform with a $600 price target.
“We upgrade MSFT to Outperform from Perform and establish a $600 PT.”
The firm said that its AI opportunity and sustained cloud momentum are too attractive to ignore.
“In our view, investors’ attention on the ramp of Microsoft’s AI revenue stream will only increase as Azure’s growth remains strong, offering not only valuation support (akin to AWS [Amazon Web Services] underpinning Amazon’s valuation), but also upside potential as this revenue stream continues scaling fast and investors embrace Microsoft as one of the long-term AI winners in software.”
-Analysts led by Brian Schwartz.
The analysts also highlighted that Microsoft’s sustaining growth in its AI business or reacceleration in Azure’s growth in fiscal 2026 is not fully reflected in the stock.
They also said that “Microsoft is one of only a few vendors in the software industry capable of delivering a Rule of 60 business profile and at unprecedented scale, which we think lends good support to premium multiples.”
Owing to scaling Azure business and accelerating AI adoption across industries, the firm expects Microsoft to be “one of the long-term AI winners in software.”
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) provides AI-powered cloud, productivity, and business solutions, focusing on efficiency, security, and AI advancements.
While we acknowledge the potential of MSFT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MSFT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 10 AI Stocks Getting Wall Street’s Attention and 10 AI Stocks Investors Are Watching This Week
Disclosure: None. Insider Monkey focuses on uncovering the best investment ideas of hedge funds and insiders. Please subscribe to our free daily e-newsletter to get the latest investment ideas from hedge funds’ investor letters by entering your email address below.
